Vehicle systems may be formed of two or more propulsion-generating vehicles that travel together along routes. The movements of these vehicles may be controlled by an operator onboard one of the vehicles. The vehicles may be communicatively coupled by wired or wireless connections between the vehicles. The operator may remotely control other vehicles in the vehicle system by directing control signals to be communicated to the other vehicles. One arrangement of vehicles can be referred to as a distributed power (DP) arrangement.
Occasionally, the vehicle system and the DP arrangement may need to be remotely controlled by an operator that is off-board the vehicle system. This may occur, for example, when a dismounted operator needs to drive a rear propulsion-generating vehicle of the vehicle system. Furthermore, the vehicle system may need to be divided into two or more segments through a portion of a route. For example, when setting out (e.g., removing) a non-propulsion generating vehicle from the vehicle system for delivery or due to a vehicle failure. This situation can occur, for example, when a rear vehicle needs to move in a direction that is different than the lead vehicle.
In order to remotely control the movement of individual propulsion-generating vehicles, the dismounted operator needs to communicatively disconnect from the lead vehicle of the vehicle system, and reconnect with the non-lead propulsion-generating vehicle. This may occur, for example, when the operator performs complex moves in the vehicle system before or after cutting the vehicle system into two or more segments. However, disconnecting from the lead vehicle and reconnecting with a non-lead vehicle is time consuming and may lead to increasing operating costs, decreasing operating revenue, and/or decreasing productivity of the customer.